The Portland daily press., 1887-04-14

The Twenty-Fourth Anniversary Held
Last Evening.
An Excellent Programme Enjoyed by
a Large Audience.
Address by Rev. David Gregg, o. D.,
of Boston.

Address by Rev. David Gregg, o. o.,
of Boston.
The twenty-fourth anniversary of the
Portland Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton was held in City Hall last evening and
an audience which nearly filed the large
hall listened to the interesting exercises.
Mr.. A. G. Dewey, whose three years service
rs president of the Association has just
closed, presided, and upon the platform, be-
sides those who participated in the pro-
gramme, were President w. S. Corey, GEN
eral Secretary II. S. Winter, number Of the
clergymen Of the city and prominent menu
bers Of the organization. The exercises
commenced with the invocation of the Di-
vine blessing by Rev. Frank T. Bayley,
pastor of the State street church. Shaw's
quartette then sang "We March to Victory"
rendering the music in their usual excellent
manner. Owing to the illness of Rev. c. j.
Clark and the length of the programme. the
reading of the scriptures was omitted, and
following the selection by the quartette,
Mrs. A. B. Morrison sang "Jesus, Lover of
My Soul" to great acceptance. Prayer was
offered by Rev. A. T. Dunn of the Free
street Baptist church, after which the quar-
tette sang another selection and responded
to an encore with Rock of Ages"
Mr.. A. dewey then read brief address.
in which he reviewed the work of the past
year and offered a number Of valuable sug-
gestons as to the method of conducting the
various features of the work of the Associa-
ton. In retiring from the Office of president
Mr.. Dewey said that he should take pleas
ure in still being permitted to take part in
the work and give his earnest efforts in its
support
Mrs Morrison sang again, and the custo-
mary collection was taken. The chairman
then introduced Rev. David Gregg, d. D., of
Boston, the speaker of the evening Mr..
Dewey said that this was the first time DR..
Gregg addressed Portland audience, but he
trusted that it would not be the last DR..
Gregg's subject he announced as the "Debt-
orship Of Young Men, AS the distinguish
ed speaker came to the front of the platform
he was greeted with applause. DR.. Gregg
is man of medium height, thick set and of
impressive appearance, He read his address
in an effective manner and held the closest
attention of the audience, who frequently
evinced their appreciation Of the words of
the speaker The address was a clearly dem
onstrated argumentin support of Dr. Gregg's
subject and was made doubly interesting by
the many witty and apt illustrations. The
address, in part follows;
DIR. GREGG's ADDRESS.
After speaking of the surprise which the
words of Paul, Il am debtor" would have
caused had Paul lived among the bus
mess men of the present day, and the reply
he would have made to their proposals of
compromise and reputation, Dr. Gregg said
that he wished to speak to the young men of
Portland upon their debtorship The world
does not recognize its debt. The young men
of today are masters of the comb, hairbrush
and looking glass, and adopts at twirling a
gold-headed: cane. They are Absolomic
dudes instead of Solomonic kings. / do not
| say that well-brnshed hat is a thing to be
| despised II II covers common-sense BRAIN
Nor am l one OF those who set young
men down as ciphers in social life
ind that all ages are needed in So
ciety. The naturalness of the little chill
dren is required to keep us from growing
artificial, the efferyerscent spirits of the
and the old are the Nestors of our delibera-
lions. But the young men are required to
do the work Of the world.
To receive full understanding of our
subject let us consider it under three heads:
First, the fact of our debtorship: second. the
extent Of our debt; and third, the effect up
on us OF a recognition of the debt.
As have said, the world does not recognize
Its debt. In support of this let us take ex-
amples OF the lowest and highest types of
a q hn III OF nl~.4 IL"
de does not recognize a debtorship. The
tramp Is philosopher. He reasons, 81 ara
here and the world is here. | have appel lite
and the earth yields food to supply my
wants; Consequently l will take what /
need" Last summer, said Dr. Gregg, a
tramp applied at my house for food and /
deemed it my duty to give him my breakfast,
Tor he. was hungry. But the tramp, who
was ilogician and good talker, reasoned
| that all he got and much more was only his
due. he said that he and his friends had
the power to destroy property, they resisted
the temptation to do so and as property was
thus preserve they should be paid to the
extent of its value. 1t would be an easy
matter to cause my house to be devoured by
nre and instead OF doing an act of charity as
had supposed: was only, by giving up my
breakfast, paying In part debt / owed to
the tramp.
But how does the man of the high tyne re-
gard his debt0rship2 Let us take a church.
man. The inner man is a bookkeeper. and
looking on the credit side of his ledger we
may md entries for every month"; as follows:
Eight Sunday services attended and eight Of
ferlngs made, four prayer meetings attended,
ed, thirty-one family worships observed and
sixty-two closet exercises The debit side is
blank. This is how the churchman regards
his debt, but God also keeps books. and
from the ACCOUNTS, in those books man will
pc judged, There he will find these entries
he has made on the credit side of his ledger.
charged as privileges for which he is a debt
or to God.
In considering the extent of our debt, we
VIII speak not OF our debt to God, but of our
qeDt TO man, as that is the debt of which
Paul spoke he has given us a model of
personality, and 1t is our duty to labor to dis
charge our debt by living so as to preserve
our bodily and mental health and put to good
use the faculties which have been given us.
The greater the power given to a man the
greater is the work required of him, The
man OF moderate talents, is he who needs
most advice and words ofcounsel, for he is the
him remember that there are but few Mag
aras while 1t Is the countless rills which are
necessary for the -wellbeing of the earth.
There must be master minds to plan, but
there must also be earnest workers to carry
out what they devise.
What should be the effect upon us of a rec
ignition OF our debtorship? 1t should teach
us first to make our best efforts towards the
discharge Of our debt, to improve the talents
which have been given to us, and it should
teach US also to call God into our lives and
live with His help.
DR.. Gregg was warmly applauded at the
close. The audience was dismissed with the
benediction by Rev. MIR. Dunn.
The report of the General Secretary was
distributed in the hall. The following is
an abstract:
GENERAL sEcRETARY's REPORT.
The first part of the report is taken up with an
interesting essay on the value of these Christian
Associations. In regard to the work of the
says two hundred and four religious meetings
have been held at the Association rooms, and
twenty-fOur in other places The following meet
ings were held at the rooms 81 meetings for